Hi! Thank you so much for coming all the way to my blog.
I'm calling myself Ricky here, and I enjoy crocheting in Tokyo, Japan.
I hope you'll find everything you want to know about the blanket here.

So again, this is my blanket.

Size is about 100cm x 150cm. 48 squares total.

Each square measures 18 x 18cm, but it really depends on what type of yarn you use.
I used DK size yarn, 100% wool, sold in Japan.

The original pattern is called Snowflake. It was on Red Heart's web site last year, but unfurtunately it has been taken down at some point. It is different from the one called 'icy snow flake' which the Crochet Crowd used for his CAL group. That one is also taken down.

But I searched on web for yiou and found the same square pattern, snow flake square, here and it's free!

Now how I joined them.....

I used the method called ' flat blade join'. I believe you can find tutorials on you tube.
But the way I did is a bit unique as it doesn't go around the entire square. That way I don't have to deal with chain loops around the blanket and can start with a different edging design. The trick is in Arne & Carlos book, who are famous creators in Europe. The book I refered is this one.

The border design is from' all shawl' by Doris Chan. You can find the pattern here.

I wanted to go for really lacy and big border for this blanket. Doris Chan's design was just perfect for my image. There's 6 rows to crochet and it's about 7 cm wide. Lot of work but I really love it.

I put the blanket on the sofa. It's perfect in our living room although i have no intension to use it for a sofa cover. It could be a nice bed cover, too.

I'd love to take a nice nap on the sofa, wrapped in this blanket.

But as soon as I finished taking pictures, somebody else was enjoying it before I do,

Hello, Lovelies!
It's a very beautiful winter day in Tokyo. How's weather in your place? Has winter arrived yet?

So my Pinetree Blanket. It's all done. I am very much satisfied how it turned out. So soft and warm. I just get cozy wrapping myself up with it. Such a happy moment that you can enjoy only in this season, right?

Now it's show time.

I may want to call this blanket ' winter forest blanket'. Whites are like snow.

I totally immitated creJJtion how to take pictures :) I love her photos. Although i am such an amateur with a compact camera, i try my best to make my work look good.

We have a small valcony facing to woods. Some are green, some are changing their colors and losing leaves.

Winter has arrived. I have to admit that it is a pain to pick up all the leaves, but i love the carpet.

as i took photos, they kept falling on my blanky. Love the season. Gland to be able to feel the nature so close in the city of Tokyo.

Maybe I should start making a list for Christmas......
Lots of cleaning to do for the house by the end of the year. It's Japanese tradition.

Or I may start working with another project on this chair. I am actually good at procrastinating:)

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading.

Once again, thank you very much Maaike, for being such a great inspiration and sharing your beautiful pattern with us.

If you haven't checked her blog, it's here. Lots of great patterns and tutorials.

If you would like to see the process of making this blanket, it's here and here.

Today I'd like to show you how I did with my Pine Tree blanket border. If you'd like to know how to crochet the square, please see the previous post here.

After sewing all 60 blocks together, I still had some work to do. Yes. Border.

CreJJtion gives you a great tutorial for edging, but I had to modify a little bit this time again. I didn't do anything difficult, though. I just went around it with DCs using three colors. Stitch 2 dcs, 2 chains, 2 dcs at the corner. It helped sizing up the blanket a bit and giving a nice look.

My blanket size became 70 cm x 110 cm, which is a good size for me to cover my laps. Now I guess we can move onto the big ta-dah moment? I took a lot of pics cause I just had to. I'm thrilled to show them to you in the next post.

Hi! Thanks for coming all the way to my blog. I am so excited to show you my latest work today. It's called Pinetree Blanket. The original pattern came from this great blog CreJJtion. I really loved her blanket and I wanted to make mine, too.

It all started from this square. CreJJtion is kind enough to show us how to make it with step by step photo instruction here.

She used Drop Paris yarn, which I can't get in Japan. I looked through my stash and I found this yarn.

Aren't those colors great? It's Japanese yarn, 100% merino wool, DK size. Very soft and comfortable to work with. I got this from an online store with very reasonable price last year. Although they don't seem to have all the colors anymore, you can find this yarn here. It's 210 yen per skein, which is like 2.00 US dollars for 40g.

I made squares with all the colors I had. But since my yarn was lot smaller than drop paris, they were bit too small to make a blanket. So I added extra one row at the end. I just surround the squre with DC.

Each block's size is 10 cm x 10 cm with extra DC row. I made 60 blocks in total. Aren't they look just gorgeous all together?

I think white blocks are doing great job there.

But Combining was a bit problem for me. Though Maaike, the author of Crejjtion, joined the blocks 'as you go', I had to sew them all as I changed the last row of the square!

And to sew them together, I had to steam all the squares beforehand. Yikes!

Well, I think it's important if you want your work to look pretty.

Finally, it's all blocked and piled up on a tray.

Started to sew them together like this.

scooping both Vs by holding two blocks right side in.

I liked the way the stitches looked on the right side.

Lots of sewing.....

sewing....

and sewing.....

But everything was worth it. Tomorrow I will show you the border part and then big ta-dah moment. Please come back again. It'd be lovely to share the finished project with you.

Love,

Ricky

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